Portuguese startup Eight is raising funds and seeking local investors to expand its video-first dating platform that replaces profile swiping and text messaging with eight-minute video calls during a single daily hour from 8 to 9 PM.
Eight, currently operating in Portugal and the UK, plans to use the investment to enter Eastern Europe and the United States. The expansion targets a global dating app market valued at $6.18 billion in 2024, serving 364 million users worldwide.
The platform requires users to create 30-second video introductions instead of photo profiles and connects matches immediately through live video conversations, addressing what founders see as fundamental flaws in traditional dating apps.
Problems in modern dating apps
Eight’s founders identified what they see as major problems with existing dating platforms: the difficulty of gauging chemistry through photos and text exchanges as well as the prevalence of fake profiles and ghosting.
“We wanted to take dating back to what matters: genuine first impressions. You shouldn’t need weeks of texting to find out if you click with someone, you can know in minutes,” Afonso Simão, CEO of Eight, shared with Portugal Startup News.
Features that break industry norms
Eight’s design deliberately differs from established dating app practices. The app operates during a restricted daily window from 8 to 9 PM. When two users match while both are online, they immediately enter an 8-minute video conversation.
This time constraint increases the likelihood of actual conversations, according to the team. Users describe the experience as “like meeting someone in a bar – but from your sofa.”
“If you’re both online at the same time, the odds you’ll actually talk are much higher. We’ve removed the ghosting, catfishing, and endless small talk that kill the fun,” says Miguel Moreira da Cruz, COO of Eight.
Human verification is an important aspect of Eight, with all profiles validated by real people before going live.
Over 400 early users have already signed up during the TestFlight phase, and their feedback consistently highlights how much more “natural” the video calls feel compared to traditional text-based dating apps.
The minds behind Eight
The trio behind Eight brings a mix of entrepreneurial and technical expertise to realize their vision of “making dating feel real again by helping people meet people, not profiles.”
Simão is a serial entrepreneur who exited from Miofar, a fitness brand that generated more than $1.2 million in revenue and fulfilled over 60,000 orders.
Moreira da Cruz has extensive sales and growth experience, holds an MBA in digital marketing, and is a former top enterprise account executive at a leading SaaS company.
CTO Vivek Sah is a second-time founder and tech lead with expertise in scalable mobile app architecture.
“Our tech is built to make people feel comfortable and safe. From secure, low‑latency video calls to human‑led verification, we’ve engineered Eight to feel effortless while protecting authenticity,” Sah said.
But here’s the twist that sets Eight apart from other tech companies: they actually want users to leave their app as quickly as possible.
“We’re not trying to make people spend hours on our app. The goal is to get them off the app and into a real conversation as fast as possible – and that influenced every product decision we made,” he added.
Desire for authenticity in the age of AI
The startup’s launch addresses growing concerns about authenticity in digital interactions. As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, the demand for genuine human connection is increasing.
Mark Cuban, billionaire entrepreneur and former Shark Tank judge, recently predicted that within three years, the rise of AI-generated content – particularly AI video – will trigger “an explosion of f2f [face-to-face] engagement, events, and jobs” as people seek real connections they can trust.
Eight is positioning itself for this shift, tackling the problems that plague modern dating: fake profiles, catfishing, ghosting, mismatched intentions, and the letdown of discovering zero chemistry after weeks of texting.
Inspiration behind the name
Eight wants to make online dating feel like a real-life encounter, “less like shopping for clothes and more like bumping into someone you can’t stop smiling at,” Simão said.
The platform’s name was inspired by Simon Sinek’s insight on the power of brief, focused connections.
“Eight minutes! When somebody texts you ‘Do you have eight minutes?’ Any of us can pause a movie, step out of a meeting, or leave a room to talk to a friend in need for eight minutes,” says Sinek.
Funding goals and expansion plans
With plans to reach 10,000 users, expand internationally, and add premium features such as faster matching and exclusive events, Eight is seeking investors in Portugal to back its mission.
Their target users are people aged 24 and over who are serious about meeting someone real and looking for something more “authentic” and “time-efficient,” which Eight delivers by ensuring matches happen “instantly, live, and always human-verified.”
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